Dear Colleagues,

I am sorry that I am getting into this discussion late but I just found out that this groups exists. A couple of thoughts. First, I believe that a broader focus is more appropriate than a narrow focus. I like the idea of technology more so than strictly online learning. There are interesting things going on in CUNY that have little to do with online learning (e.g., democratizing large lectures with clicker technology, expanding social science research with graphics and imaging, gaming, etc.) I think our journal would serve as an ideal vehicle for the faculty involved in these applications to publish their work.

Second, having been the associate editor for JALN for a number of years, I would say that a significant part of our journal should focus on research (broadly defined). I have had lots of correspondence with young faculty who need to publish their work and I will presume that there is a similar need at CUNY. In some of our disciplines, scholarship is frequently unofficially defined as research.

Third, I believe that we should also serve as a vehicle for CUNY to present best practices.
Third, my initial reaction is not to limit our submissions/articles to CUNY faculty, administrators. students, etc. I would broaden this to include others maybe faculty from “urban” colleges/universities.

Fourth, I think that a journal (online or otherwise) is different from blogs and other social networking software. The nature of a journal is an assumption that there has been some review (e.g, peer) that establishes that the author(s) have something important to say. Anyone or almost anyone can blog or post something on a social networking site but a journal article should pass some type of muster. I hope that I am not sounding elitist or canonical but I do believe that a publication in a journal should be reviewed by a panel of peers.

Tony

Dear Colleagues,

I am sorry that I am getting into this discussion late but I just found out that this groups exists. A couple of thoughts. First, I believe that a broader focus is more appropriate than a narrow focus. I like the idea of technology more so than strictly online learning. There are interesting things going on in CUNY that have little to do with online learning (e.g., democratizing large lectures with clicker technology, expanding social science research with graphics and imaging, gaming, etc.) I think our journal would serve as an ideal vehicle for the faculty involved in these applications to publish their work.

Second, having been the associate editor for JALN for a number of years, I would say that a significant part of our journal should focus on research (broadly defined). I have had lots of correspondence with young faculty who need to publish their work and I will presume that there is a similar need at CUNY. In some of our disciplines, scholarship is frequently unofficially defined as research.

Third, I believe that we should also serve as a vehicle for CUNY to present best practices.
Third, my initial reaction is not to limit our submissions/articles to CUNY faculty, administrators. students, etc. I would broaden this to include others maybe faculty from “urban” colleges/universities.

Fourth, I think that a journal (online or otherwise) is different from blogs and other social networking software. The nature of a journal is an assumption that there has been some review (e.g, peer) that establishes that the author(s) have something important to say. Anyone or almost anyone can blog or post something on a social networking site but a journal article should pass some type of muster. I hope that I am not sounding elitist or canonical but I do believe that a publication in a journal should be reviewed by a panel of peers.

Tony